Lives and works in Almaty, Amsterdam and Berlin. Menlibayeva graduated from the Theatre and Fine Arts Institute in Almaty in 1992. Her educational background is in the Soviet Russian avant-garde school of Futurism, which is combined with a nomadic aesthetic of post-Soviet, contemporary Kazakhstan. Working  across a range of media including painting, graphics, performance, video and installation, Menlibayeva employs a syncretic and surrealist neo-shamanism to expose the spirit, history and horror of the locations she chooses.

Menlibayeva exhibited for the first time with the underground group Green Triangle in 1988 and was awarded the Daryn Prize by the President of Kazakhstan in 1998. Her work has since been exhibited at: Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, 2011; Lonely at the Top, Europe at large #6 (Refrains from the Wasteland), Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, 2010; Exodus, Tengri-Umai Gallery, Almaty, 2009;  On the Road, Galerie Davide Gallo, Berlin, 2007; Zones of Contact, Biennale of Sydney, 2006, 51st Venice Biennale in 2005; the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art, Almaty, 2005 and 2000; Canaia Gallery, Ciudad de Mexico, 2004; and Artra Gallery, Amsterdam, 2002, amongst many others.